Opinion: Treat Women Equally? This Means War!

When Hilary Rosen lobbed her clumsy comments at Ann Romney, and inadvertently smacked the 23 percent of moms who are stay-at-home, it was just the latest shot in a campaign waged around women.

It came fresh on the heels of the faux "war on women" Republicans were supposedly waging, because they took feminism halfway seriously and felt that women, being equal to men, should also pay for their own birth control (after all, no one thought condoms should be included in insurance plans). The rage and the fury over the idea that people should pay for their own recreational sex took up more column inches than it should have.

The Democrats won the day by fudging the talking points to pretend women would lose access to all birth control if those evil white Republican men had their way. The GOP found itself stammering about the $7-a-month cost of birth control at Target, but because Rush Limbaugh called a 30-year old liberal activist who didn't want to pay for her own birth control a "slut", everyone had stopped listening.

It's hard to be a feminist when other women are trying to get the mostly male government to take care of us. Barack Obama isn't even trying to pretend women can make it on their own. His "Julia" campaign cartoon notes the way Obama personally will take care of a woman from her childhood through old age. Where would we women be without all the government programs Obama will ensure we get — and that dastardly Mitt Romney will take away from us?

Cradle to grave, a woman will be supported by the government. No similar cartoon was made about "John" and the way Barack Obama will gently guide him through his life, with the presumption, of course, being that a man will be working and paying his own way through his life while the little lady will sit back and watch the benefits roll in.

Such is the status of women in America. It used to be that liberalism pushed for an equality between the sexes. Now, any motion to treat women as equal to men is used as political ammo. An insulting, degrading cartoon portraying a woman as helpless without a man's help would have once caused an outcry for alleged feminists. No longer.

Meanwhile, Mitt Romney chose Beth Myers, a longtime aide and confidant, to lead his Vice Presidential search, and the New York Timesmade sure to describe her as "maternal" and note that perhaps she was chosen because she was a woman and he needs to close the numbers gap with women voters. All her previous accomplishments, such as helping Mitt Romney crush Shannon O’Brien in the gubernatorial debates in Massachusetts, are secondary to her gender and ability to remember to provide Splenda for the staff.

It isn't fair to women, but it doesn't seem that anyone cares anymore. Treating a woman as equal to a man means you're waging a "war on women." No one will be taking that chance in an election year.

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